


the New Kid

by Saturna



Category: Final Fantasy XV, Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Future Fic, High School, M/M, Magic, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-12
Updated: 2020-05-12
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:14:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,368
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24148783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Saturna/pseuds/Saturna
Summary: After the dust has settled on the plot of Kingdom Hearts 3, Roxas decides to attend high school in Twilight Town. Yen Sid believes it would be best for him to have some life experiences of his own that are completely unconnected to Sora, Kairi, and Riku. But, high school proves to be just as difficult to get through than all the other trials he's faced thus far. It doesn't help that he's got a ghost of a memory of virtual Twilight Town and a crush on his lab partner.
Relationships: Hayner/Roxas (Kingdom Hearts)
Kudos: 10





	the New Kid

He was the first new student that Eventide High had seen in four years. The school was tucked away on one of Twilight Town's countless hills, giving the school a view of the sky that always seemed to be covered in the velvety blue of early morning and amber glazed light of sunset. Like the rest of the town, it seemed to be stuck in time—resistant to change and stimuli. Roxas's arrival was a lot like throwing a jagged rock into a still pool.

Most of the students openly whispered to each other when he walked by them in the halls, intrigued by the alien stranger, his novelty. It was hard to tell if he was being admired or mocked but in the end, he decided, one was not much different than the other. They were them and he was on the outside.

Roxas was tugged along his first day at Eventide by them, the flow of students, from one class to another. Arithmetic. History. English. Each class headed by a sleepy adult standing in front of a dusty chalkboard—the same, the same, the same. He struggled through them, trying his best to use context clues and logic where he simply did not have any foundation to pull from.

This day, this trial of a day, was paralyzing. Walking the hallways was an overwhelming amount of new stimuli, full of new faces gawking at him and a confusing criss cross of hallways he had to navigate to get from classroom to classroom. Everything was so much different than anything else he'd seen and yet something about traversing the hallways felt natural, like he'd done it before. This high school was pretty much exactly like any other school in the universe and yet it was also specifically familiar. The constant feeling of deja vu was dizzying. Aside from that, he was also debilitatingly and horribly anxious. This town was so mundane, so peaceful, and yet a malignant feeling of danger lingered within him.

He thought, that this was actually a horrible idea and that he would call Yen Sid later to ask if he could take the next train out of here. He'd just have to coast by until after school.

In Theory and Application of Magic, however, Roxas's day of coasting by would come to an end. The professor, a fancy looking man named Ignis Scientia, decided to pair the kids up into pairs for the day's experiment and to avoid any sort of unfairness he would assign them into groups. Professor Ignis walked up and down the aisles, assigning numbers to students that would decide their fate. As he counted the students off into pairs Roxas heard a spattering of variations of "yes!" and "aw man…" He helplessly watched watched him countdown to his demise.

One, one.

Two, two.

Three, three.

Four, four.

Five.

Before Roxas could figure out who he'd been assigned, a lanky boy strolled up to his desk with his hands in his pockets, leaned over and looked him directly in the eye. "Five?" he asked. "Yes," choked Roxas. "Great. You're the new kid, right? Name's Hayner. Let's get this over with. But, I'm warning you—I'm not gonna do all the work and let you take credit. I'm no good at this magic stuff. I usually let Hayner and Pence figure this stuff out. And I guess..I take credit for their work usually." Hayner said with a sigh. Once the student near Roxas vacated his seat to go work with his partner, Hayner took up residence and scooted the desk up beside him. He immediately folded his arms onto the desk to rest his chin on.

Today's assignment was a study in action and reaction. After he finished pairing hapless students into teams, the professor returned to his perch at the front of the class and tapped his wand onto the chalkboard at a diagram of magical elements.

"Magic is divided into elements based on properties and behavior," he explained. "Each element has an exact opposite—each pair complements and contrasts. They can be used, of course to oppose each other, but occasionally they can come together to great synergistic effect," Ignis lectured. Hayner's eyes seemed to glaze over at the explanation. Although the explanation drifted into an admittedly boring monologue on the semantics of elements and properties of magic, the general concept was easy enough for Roxas grasp. He thought about taking notes on the more complicated points being made but decided against the possibility of looking lame in front of his lab partner.

Their assignment was simple enough: teams were to prove the concept of opposing elements by each member using a simple application of an elemental spell. After his explanation, Professor Ignis walked around the room at an even pace, tapping his telescopic pointer on the wall. Upon each tap of his pointer, the wall surged with light, sending a web of sparks scurrying along the surface and dancing across the classroom. The bricks in the wall inflated into cushiony cotton pillows and the floor went morphed from its scuffed wood into a sort of bouncy straw. Roxas looked up at the ceiling to watch it get wiped away, revealing a night sky that casted an ambient light from an artificial array of constellations and an impressive, intimidating full moon. By the time Ignis had returned to what had been the front of the classroom it seemed like they were anywhere but school. "Hopefully the open air will help you all think through your experiments a bit more clearly. I've always found the environment of a classroom a bit too stuffy to practice magic."

"He's such a show off," Hayner said, rolling his eyes. Although Roxas did catch him looking up at the sky, he thought, in awe.

"Umm, so what should we do?" Roxas asked. He, Hayner, and the rest of the teams had moved their desks so that they'd be sat side by side in pairs. Up close, Hayner's eyes were a striking shade of fiery brown that made it hard to look him directly into the eye. "Man, I don't know…I wasn't really paying attention to be honest," he said. He leaned back in his chair and grinned a sort of guilty smile at Roxas. "Are we supposed to just blast each other with magic and hope they cancel out?"

"I don't think that's exactly it…Also that sounds really dangerous," Roxas replied. "I think we're supposed to use opposing factors of magic to create something bigger, better, and more useful. Something like that."

"Woah…I didn't know you were smart, new kid," Hayner said with a bit of a mocking amazement. "Are you like, one of those whiz kids like Pence? I am so jealous!"

"No, it's not that at all. In fact, I don't really do that good on any other subject. I think I just kinda get this stuff," Roxas laughed nervously. "Experience I guess."

"Well, since you're the master here, I'll let you take the lead! Which I never do by the way, so don't get used to it. Just tell me what to do so we can get this over with."

"I'm not a master! I don't even really know what Professor Ignis means by synergistic magic…"

"Listen, you seem like you're good at this. Let's just use opposing spells and see what happens! It's like Professor Iggy says, opposites attract or whatever." laughed Hayner.

After a bit of discussion between the students, the last half hour of class was dedicated to presentations. The students stood up to line up on the parameters of the room, clearing space for presentations. The professor clapped his hands and transformed the desks into wooden wands that glided towards the students.

All lined up together around the edges of the classroom it became hilariously clear how loosely the dress code was enforced at Eventide. The students were required to wear checker-patterned slacks or skirts, button ups in a truly offensive shade of pastel yellow, and a very outdated red short tie. In actuality, the students often donned graphic T-shirts underneath their button ups, hiked up their skirts, wore their ties around their arms and thighs, literally anything that would differentiate them from the standard uniform. At this point, wearing the clothes as intended would be a bigger fashion statement than altering it.

Hayner opted to forego the tie in favor of unbuttoning his shirt to reveal his collarbones and rolled his sleeves up to the elbow which accentuated the muscles in his arms from playing Struggle and baseball after school. While the school-issued slacks seem to swallow Roxas, they suited Hayner perfectly and accentuated his ass. Some students looked like they had broken dress code just to wear their favorite t-shirt to school but Hayner had cultivated the complete look of an effortless debonair.

The first pair of students to present, a severe looking girl with white-blonde hair and a tall jocky looking kid, took their spots in the middle of the room. "Anytime, students. The floor is yours," said Ignis at the head of the class.

They stood about 10 feet apart, shared a look and silently counted down. At once they shouted the respective incantations for opposing spells. Roxas heard the jock yell "Thunder!" before a bolt of electricity shot from the jock's wand that momentarily blinded Roxas. He was sure he was going to open his eyes and see the girl lying on the ground crackling with lightning. Instead he opened his eyes to see a small fleet of fireworks shoot up towards the sky. It was brief and with such aggressive spellcasting the jock's wand had exploded. "Well done, you two. Excellent use of a gravity spell. I suggest a little less oomph in that swing of yours, Mr. Rai. Spare the dean from purchasing another desk next time."

"I can't help it professor, I'm just that strong, you know!" said the jock with a flex of his muscles.

"You two will receive a B+ for today. Thank you," said Ignis curtly.

"Annoying." whispered the girl under her breath.

The next few pairs of students went mostly unremarkably. Some students used fire magic to melt a block of ice magic—a feat which Ignis described as "uninspired." At least one pair of students accidentally sent each other flying towards the pillowy walls with blasts of kinetic magic (for which they received N/A instead of an F.) Eventually a short boy and a girl wearing her hair in two braids created a drawing of a flower by suspending beams of fire magic in mid-air with a slowing charm. Roxas put together that Hayner was friends with them after he shouted "If you fail you owe me an ice cream after school!" which they giggled to in response.

Finally it was Roxas and Hayner's turn. Roxas was nervous. Nervous about having to do something like this in front of a dozen strange teens and an overly erudite teacher. Nervous about being paired with someone who looked like Hayner. Nervous about Hayner not being any good at magic. He was so nervous it had synthesized into a bit of resentment at his situation, a bitterness towards Yen Sid who suggested he go to school here. He wanted to scream at the top of his lungs. He wanted to cry.

"Roxas. Hayner. I believe it is your turn. The stage is all yours."

The two of them stood across the room and looked each other in the eye. The look of Hayner's face was unparsable. Roxas wondered what he was thinking as he looked at him. He wondered if he noticed the belt that the fairies had to lend him so that his slacks wouldn't sag or if he noticed how nervous he was or if he realized that Roxas was staring back at him and thinking distracting thoughts about his forearms.

"Hey, Roxas! Are you ready?" Hayner called. Roxas swallowed and nodded. Three. Two. One.

Hayner yelled an incantation to summon a miniature blizzard. Roxas missed the beat and then blurted out "Thunder!" swinging his wand so hard he nearly lost his grip and almost threw it across the room. A bolt of lightning jumped out from his wand with so much force it nearly knocked him over. The beam collided with Hayner's blast of ice and exploded, creating a burst of slushy snow that burst out all at once, startling the students and causing them to scream in shock. The effect was not unlike a car swerving into a puddle to splash a pedestrian. Only instead of water it was freezing cold blobs of snow being thrown onto their classmates. In the aftermath of the snowy tidal wave, a gentle flurry of snowflakes swirled in the air.

"Ugh, I'm drenched!" said Olette trying to slough snow off of her bare arms.

"And f-f-freezing" said Pence, next to her. A pile of snow had accumulated on his pompadour as if he had been standing outside in December for a few hours.

"Sorry…" Roxas apologized.

"Well, we wanted to make it snow. And it's snowing. Sounds like an A+ project to me, Professor!" Hayner laughed.

"Right. It looks a bit more like a C minus from where I'm standing Mr. Hayner. Ease up on the juice next time, Mr. Roxas, and perhaps we would have gotten what you were aiming for rather than a hailstorm."

Professor Ignis did his rounds of the room once everyone had presented and reverted it back to the stuffy school room they walked into. The snow evaporated into steam. The night sky faded into the caramel twilight sky of the afternoon before the ceiling rematerialized. Wands flew out of the students hands and transfigured themselves back into desks, except for Rai's which transformed into a desk splintered in half. The last bell of the school day rang right on cue and all of the kids fled into the weekend before Roxas could even find his bag. He turned around to see Ignis erasing the chalkboard and the backs of Hayner, Pence, and Olette as they walked out of the classroom together.

"I am such. A. Fuck-up."


End file.
